Flooded House Restoration in Hull

What a flooded Hull house looks like

In most Hull floods the water is shallow but everywhere. The 2007 review noted that many homes took in only a few centimetres, yet that was enough to ruin floors, kitchen units, skirting and the bottom of every wall. Many homes here sit with their door thresholds below the level of the road outside, so water running down the street and along the ten-foot behind the terrace finds its way in at both ends.

Because most of the city's rainwater shares pipes with the sewers, flood water in Hull is nearly always dirty. That changes what can be kept. Hard surfaces can be cleaned and sanitised. Carpets, underlay, mattresses, chipboard and anything else that soaked it up usually can't.

The order we work in

1. Power and safety. Electrics off in the wet areas, and a check of what the water carried.
2. Record everything. Photos of each room, the tide mark and every damaged item, logged before it's moved, because the loss adjuster will ask.
3. Pump out and strip. Standing water out, then flooring, swollen kitchen plinths and doors, skirting, and plaster to above the tide line where it needs to come off.
4. Sanitise. Every surface the water touched, including the floor void under suspended timber floors.
5. Dry. Dehumidifiers and air movers with meter readings on each visit. Solid-wall terraces and concrete floors are slow and we let them take the time they need.
6. Put it back. Plastering, flooring, kitchens and decorating once the readings say the structure is dry.

Where you'll live while it dries

After June 2007 around 6,300 people in Hull spent time in temporary accommodation, more than 1,400 of them in caravans. If your ground floor is stripped out, most home policies include alternative accommodation, so ask your insurer about it on the first call rather than the third week. Some families stay upstairs while drying runs downstairs. We'll tell you honestly whether that's workable in your house.

Fix it so the next one costs less

Flood-resilient repairs are now standard on new homes in Hull: the council requires them, and its own new builds use raised sockets, solid floors, non-return valves on the drains and plasterboard laid horizontally. Much of that can be done during the rebuild of an existing house. Ask your insurer whether Build Back Better applies to your policy, as it can pay towards these measures.

If it's still happening, start with the first-hour checklist. For how the insurance side works, see our claim pack.

Our water damage cost guide sets out what pumping out, stripping out and drying usually cost, and how flood and escape of water claims differ.